Category: Society Events and News

Christine Gill, the Delphinium Lady was awesome. She had a very interesting talk and great advice about growing delphiniums.

Christine says it is best if you grow your own delphiniums from seed. Most of the seeds in garden centres are developed in California. Plants grown from these seeds will not be at all prolific in seed production in future years due to climate differences. You will do better long term with seed produced in Canada or the UK. She recommends Pro-Mix for the seedlings rather than a soil/compost mixture and says you should use deep pots so the plants can produce long roots. In the spring, get the plants ready for the big outdoors by putting the pots outside for a few hours a day for acclimatization. Seed started by the end of March should be ready to bloom by July/August the same year.

Delphiniums come in lots of colours and shades – blue, purple, white, dark red, pink and lavender. They can grow to as much as 8’ to 10’ high and plants can be as much as 3′ across.

You can join the Ontario Delphinium Club. Their website address is: www.ondelphiniums.com The annual membership is $10, which gets you four newsletters a year and a free packet of seeds. You can email them at: info@ondelphiniums.com for more information.

Christine finished by producing some delphiniums she had raised and brought in for us to buy. She had obviously stoked everyone’s enthusiasm for these flowers as she sold out of plants very rapidly

We tried a different format for the meeting with the speaker starting at 7:00 and breaking for 15 minutes after the speaker was finished and then continuing with the business part of the meeting. The response to this format was very positive and so we will continue with this in September.

After the social break, the meeting moved to ‘normal business’ and announcements.

Garden Show Update from Anne Reeves

• All the vendor space, inside and out, has been snapped up. We have 50 vendors total.
• Cookies and squares are needed for the Victorian Tea Room.
• Posters and rack cards are ready for distribution.
• There will be 3 speakers at the Show: Susan Meisner from Spindlewood Gardens, Peter Fuller from Fuller Nurseries, and chef Tina Morey to talk about cooking with herbs. We are selling tickets for these speakers. They cost $7 to hear one speaker and $15 to hear all three.

Arline de Bourbon made an appeal for volunteers for the Hospital Gardens to help with a major cleanup

Mini-Show

This month, the mini-show had entries in only one category: ‘A miniature design using fresh flowers’.

As customary, the entries were judged by the members present at the meeting: Pat Stuckey [left image below] came first, with Angela Palmer second [centre], and Mary Jenkins took third place [right].

Click the images to see larger versions.

photo credits: Bert Jenkins

Howard Hunter opened a meeting attended by the biggest crowd of the year (so far) including some of the 4H members who were attending and hoping to pick up tips on exhibiting at the upcoming Flower Show.

Howard quickly went through announcements about discounts available from local nurseries, introduced a prospective logo for the society (and solicited comments on it), as well as exhorting people to vote in the mini-show.

Hedy Campbell gave a short report on the first society workshop and that it was rapidly filled and she received good feedback that would assist with future workshops. At present, a workshop titled ‘Nature’s Banquet’ with Honey Pie Herbals is scheduled for June 5th. Details to follow.

Marianne Malachowski gave a brief update on Master Gardeners activities and noted that they would be having a plant sale on May 24 in the Metro parking lot on Main Street in Picton.

Anne Reeves gave a rapid-fire report on the Garden Show noting that ALL of the indoor vendor spaces were already booked and that the available outdoor spaces were going fast (so well done to the Garden Show team).

Featured Speaker

Our featured speaker was Penny Stewart who gave a talk about Garden Shows and how to exhibit, entitled ‘Grow to Show and Show to Grow’. Penny gave us an animated presentation, replete with practical tips and ‘best practices’ to help you stay cool by being prepared for just about anything that could happen when getting set for a Garden Show. She spiced her presentation with anecdotes of ‘classic’ errors made by experienced show exhibitors, all while illustrating techniques and tips and the ‘perfect’ grouping of three daffodils!

A copy of Penny’s remarks can be downloaded here Exhibiting at Shows [86kb pdf].

Mini-Show

This month, the mini-show had entries in only one category: ‘Early bloom from your garden’.

As customary, the entries were judged by the members present at the meeting: Pat Stuckey [left image below] came first, with Connie Graham second [centre], and Hedy Campbell took third place [right].

Click the images to see larger versions.

photo credits: Bert Jenkins

The weather finally took a break and people coming to the meeting were able to travel in comfort and sunshine!

President Colleen Green opened the proceedings with a brief acknowledgement of new members and guests which brought 35+ people to the March meeting.

Hedy Campbell gave a brief presentation talking about upcoming workshops which the Society would put on to promote membership in our Society, as well as sharing some of her ideas about showcasing baked and homemade goods at the Garden Show and looking for volunteers to assist – details [here].

Colleen continued with announcements that the Flower Show brochure would be ready for the April meeting and would provide details of the show categories [nice tie-in to next month’s presentation from Penny Stewart], and possibly a silent auction at the show. After an advance thanks to Sheila and Dee for the ‘goodies’ for next month’s meeting, Colleen introduced the evening’s featured speaker – Nicolette McGraw on “Photographing Gardens”.

What followed was a dazzling array of garden and outdoor photographs in a slide presentation which Nicolette used to illustrate what she considers the key points for success is photographing gardens.

Key thoughts are to focus on texture, depth, pinch, and emotion. Lighting is a prime consideration and sunset and sunrise usually produce warm colours.

Composition – simplify, fill the scene, use ‘leading’ lines, look for complementary colours.

Perspective – look up, look down, look straight across. Some of the best images were everyday subjects seen from a different perspective for a powerful image.

Close-up – look for patterns, abstract images, and pictures with a ‘punch’. Patience really helps with these.

Weather – don’t be afraid to photograph on those not so nice days. Any weather will work with the right subject and composition. Sometimes the weather is the picture.

Action! – sometimes. Which plants attract critters and birds? Which seasonal plants ae favourites with bugs and insect visitors?

Indoors – use natural light, use fresh flowers as your subjects, and stand at a comfortable height.

Editing – start simple, look for free software, talk to friends, and – most importantly – save the original. Sound advice! As they say “he who laughs last, probably made a back-up”.

Mini-Show

The mini-show was two separate categories. As customary, the entries were judged by the members present at the meeting: Sheila Simmons [image upper row left] came first in the “All Green Arrangement” category, with Pat Stuckey second [image upper row right]. Mary Jenkins took third place [image lower row left] and also took first place in the “St. Patrick’s Day Arrangement” [image lower row right] with a beer mug container!

Click the images to see larger versions.

photo credits: Bert Jenkins

Announcements

Bob Simmons announced a couple of items of interest from the Stewardship Council:

• Wednesday April 16 at the Firehall, a talk about coyotes.Details here.
• Sunday May 4 beginning at 9:00 am, the Tree Sale at the Cattle Barn on the Picton Fairgrounds< - $2 trees for sale: conifers, maple, butternut, hickory, and nannyberry/li>